Anne Applebaum thinks we should stop using a cute word like "pork" and start describing it as what it really is: politicians' corrupt attempts to buy votes.

But maybe at least it is time for a change of terminology. After all, taking $200 million of public money to build a bridge, name it after yourself and get reelected isn't merely "pork." Demanding $250 billion of public money for your hurricane-damaged state -- in the hope that voters will ignore all the mistakes you made before the hurricane struck -- isn't just "waste" either. As I say, corruption comes in many forms. But whatever form it comes in, it will be easier for voters to identify if it's called by its true name.

If we have to use a metaphor, I'd prefer "grease" to pork. After all, writing these kinds of earmarks into bills is the grease that keeps the whole machine running. But, to mix up the grease imagery, too much grease and you clog up the whole drain and nothing gets through.